In April 1859, Lassen was buried where he was
murdered, in the Black Rock Desert. In November 1859, U. Johnson Tutt, Antone
Storff, and Joe Kitts went to the Black Rock Desert to retrieve Lassen’s body.
However, a number of Honey Lakers were bothered, as the party did not bring back
Clapper’s body. On November 27, 1859, Lassen was reburied under the majestic
Ponderosa pine tree where he camped the first night he stayed in the Honey Lake
Valley.

The Territorial Enterprise reported: “The remains of Peter Lassen, the
old pioneer, were buried with Masonic honors, Sunday November 27th on his own
ranch at Honey Lake. The attendance upon that occasion, was a very large one
for the place.” In May 1990, rock hunters in the Black Rock Desert, at Clapper
Canyon, unearthed a skull and upper body portions of a skeleton. After
extensive research and computer analysis, the skeleton was determined to be the
remains of Edward Clapper.On May 30, 1992, a burial ceremony was held, and the
internment of Clapper’s remains placed at the Lassen Monument.

On June 14, 1862, the local Masonic Lodge placed a ten-foot tall stone marker on
Lassen’s grave. By the early 1900s, a portion of that monument had deteriorated.
In 1917, after a year and half long campaign to raise funds, a new Lassen
monument was erected next to the old one. In the 1920s, a movement was started
to purchase this property and establish it as a public monument. On April 23,
1952, Hannah F. Hulsman deeded the plot to the Native Daughters of the Golden
West, Susanville Parlor No. 243, who later donated it to the Masonic Lodge.

On
Sunday, September 10, 1961, the mammoth Ponderosa pine tree, that Lassen was
buried next to, was felled. The tree had been deemed a potential hazard to
visitors and to the monuments. The 164 foot tall tree measured nine feet in
diameter and 27.3 feet in circumference at the butt. It was estimated that the
tree was 600 years old and it was the oldest and largest Ponderosa Pine in the
United States. A section of tree was shipped to the University of Arizona for
studies and another section placed at the museum in Susanville.

Besides Peter Lassen and Edward Clapper burials, several members of
the Hulsman family are also interred there: